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by jsoc815 3049 days ago
>The retail masses showed up many many years ago in the form of retirement accounts.

The size and composition of the mass is often over-estimated, particularly w/respect to retirement accounts.[1] And they've mostly been sitting on the sidelines. Over all trading volume has been lower since the 08/09 crash, the retail side in particular. (Don't have access to the tool that tracks this anymore, but there are lots of articles/videos, etc... talking about this.)

>Also I really doubt retail investors are the catalyst for anything here.

Generally correct, but I caught an interview on CNBC the other day where the speaker said that retail flows accounted for 80% of the volume on one of the US exchanges for that day. So, sometimes retail investors can have an some impact on market movements.

*[1]: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fewer-americans-retirement-ac...